Lee Johnston: I'm not fit enough for North West 200, but I’m eyeing TT return

The Fermanagh native suffered life-threatening injuries in a crash during Supersport qualifying at Church Corner last year and received a blood transfusion on the golf course in Portstewart before being airlifted to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

His injuries included a broken femur, shoulder, collapsed lung, fractured face and foot, broken ribs and internal bleeding.

The 35-year-old spent three days on a ventilator but despite the traumatic experience, British Supersport race winner Johnston hoped to make his road racing comeback at the North West this week, where opening practice takes place on Wednesday.

However, a broken right leg sustained during pre-season testing in Spain in February has not healed sufficiently and Johnston has had to concede defeat in his bid to line up on the grid in Portrush, with the Maguiresbridge man still unable to remove the external fixator on his leg.

Johnston — who lives in Huddersfield — is now in a race against time to be fit enough to compete at the Isle of Man TT, where practice commences on Monday, May 27.

Speaking on his personal YouTube vlog, Johnston said: “I mentioned when the cage got loosened that we were on a trial period of a few days and it could have gone either way; it didn’t go the way I wanted.

“So basically… the leg didn’t react the way it needed to react in order to take the frame off, so the rods had to be put back in again and the frame had to be tightened back up. To put this into perspective, we were trying to take it off at seven weeks and to start off with, the surgeon told me it was going to be at least 14 to 16 weeks — so that’s how far ahead we were trying to push the situation.

“It’s not physically possible [to race at the North West 200] because I’ve still got the cage on my leg, so firstly that’s really upsetting,” added the 2019 Supersport TT winner.

“Obviously that was the place of the really big crash last year and in my head I thought I’d easily be back, fit enough, to race there again and put that all to bed, go back and hopefully try to win again.

“But that’s not the case now – we’re definitely not fit to do the North West 200 — but the next big thing is to try and do the TT if I’m still fit to be doing the TT. That all revolves around whether the leg is strong enough to have the cage removed and that’s the next part of the news that I don’t know yet.”

Johnston will attend the North West to work as a pundit and said he is looking forward to meeting his fans after receiving countless messages of support.

“I’m going to the North West and I’ll be working for the guys at the BBC and I want to go and see all the fans,” he said.

Meanwhile, in a shock development on Tuesday the Honda Racing UK team revealed that Dean Harrison, John McGuinness and Nathan Harrison will only have Superstock specification machinery at the North West.

A statement said the trio would not be riding Superbike or Supersport machines ‘due to the demands of the 2024 calendar and schedule, combined with challenges in the supply chain regarding parts and materials’.

Senior TT winner Dean Harrison said: “Look, this is obviously not how we planned to come to the North West 200, but it’s the circumstance that we have and we will keep on going.

“I am still determined to go out there and give it my all and fight for some great results.”

Also this week, record 29-time winner Alastair Seeley has been officially declared a non-starter after failing to secure suitable machinery, while six-time World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea is set to complete a lap of the NW200 course on a Pata Yamaha-branded machine after the opening Superbike race on Thursday evening.